Plate Nº 50 · recorded October 15, 2026
Earth & ClimateReported finding
NASA Will Fly Low Over Texas Farmland to Sniff Livestock Emissions
NASA's FarmFlux mission begins Oct. 22, flying low over Texas livestock farms with a dozen-plus sensors to measure methane, ammonia, ozone and particulates.
By Elena Vasquez2 min read438 words
In brief
- NASA flies low-altitude research missions over Texas farmland Oct. 22 – Nov. 9, 2026
- A Dynamic Aviation A200 aircraft will measure gases and particles from animal feeding operations near Transit, Texas
- FarmFlux deploys more than a dozen sensors tracking ozone, methane, ammonia and particulates
- The mission is led by NASA Goddard, Colorado State University and Boston University
- A second campaign with a NASA P-3 Orion flies over the Midwest and California's Central Valley from March to July 2027
NASA starts low-altitude research flights over Texas farmland on Thursday, Oct. 22, and will keep flying through Monday, Nov. 9. The target: gases and particles drifting up from animal feeding operations near Transit, Texas.
The flights are the opening move of FarmFlux, a NASA mission built to measure what agriculture sends into the air — and how those pollutants interact with the atmosphere.
What exactly will the aircraft do?
A Dynamic Aviation A200 twin-engine aircraft will fly at low altitude over feeding operations, sampling the air as it passes. Farmers and residents near Transit may notice the plane repeatedly crossing the area over the 19-day window.
The science payload is substantial. FarmFlux will deploy more than a dozen sensors to measure:
- ozone
- methane
- ammonia
- particulates
- other pollutants rising from cropland and livestock farms
That's a wide chemical sweep. Methane and ammonia matter because they're major agricultural emissions; particulates and ozone matter because they shape air quality. FarmFlux will track all of them, plus how they mix and react once they leave the ground.
Why study farm emissions at all?
Agricultural emissions make up an important and understudied piece of Earth's land-and-atmosphere system, according to NASA. Translation: scientists know farms release these gases, but they lack fine-grained measurements of how much, when, and what happens next.
That gap matters. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and ammonia from livestock waste affects both air quality and ecosystems. Without good field data, models of these processes stay rough.
The Texas flights fix that. Low passes put sensors close to the source, capturing emission plumes before they disperse.
Who's running the mission?
FarmFlux is jointly led by three institutions:
- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
- Colorado State University
- Boston University
NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley announced the flight campaign. The A200 aircraft itself comes from Dynamic Aviation.
Is Texas the only stop?
No. A second campaign is already on the calendar. From March to July 2027, a NASA P-3 Orion aircraft will fly additional low-altitude research missions during the growing season.
That phase focuses on cropland, and it covers two of America's biggest farming regions: the Midwest and California's Central Valley. Together, the livestock-focused Texas flights and the cropland-focused 2027 flights give FarmFlux a broad look at U.S. agriculture's atmospheric footprint.
What's the takeaway?
NASA is turning its instruments on American farmland, starting Oct. 22 in Texas, to measure pollutants scientists have largely missed — and the results could sharpen how we understand agriculture's role in the atmosphere.
via science.nasa.gov (Original)
More from Elena Vasquez
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Correspondent covering money, funding and market shifts around general science news at SciBeat.
241 articles
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